Water gets into everything. It seeps into all nooks and crannies, invading all it touches. And once the water recedes, mold grows and it develops this stench. It’s the smell of death.

We left Camp Algiers early this morning for breakfast in a local coffee shop. Loretta’s Authentic Pralines is a small coffee shop with a worldwide distribution of the sweet Southern confections. Out back is the warehouse for her sweets. We arrived at 7:30am just as Loretta and her staff were about to have their morning prayer. They asked us to join hands with them and Loretta gave a moving prayer.

She thanked God for the day. She thanked him for sending people to help. She prayed that Ecclesiastes says there is a time to rebuild and she knows this is that time. Afterward she gave us all a big hug, and I thanked her.

With a stomach full of buttery grits, we went to the work site, a large two-story house with four bedrooms. The entire ground floor was inundated with water during the storm.

Preparing to Enter

Clearing out a house is a lot like an invasion, when you think about it. Our crew of twenty stood at the door as it was opened. A few men with hammers and crowbars went in first to pry off doors and windows to get air in the place. We formed a conveyor belt to start getting out some of the debris, and establish a beachhead in the house. As we slowly pull out debris, we are able to push further and further into the house, until our entire crew is inside and pulling out rotted couches, ruined cabinets, and all sorts of moldy papers. We pulled out so much paper.

Pulling Out Debris

Ruined Cabinet

Once we were inside the house, we moved to the back, where we inhaled an indescribable stench. I couldn’t place it until later when I was talking to the owner. He had six dogs, five of which did not make it with him out. They had survived in the house for a while before eventually perishing before he returned. This is what made up the one inch layer of what we thought was mud in the back of the house. We were smelling a combination of brackish water, feces, mold, and dead animal. It was the smell of death.

Two refrigerators were in the house, one toppled and in the middle of the kitchen. Each had its own foul odor from the former contents, now a black sludge inside them. We hauled them out on handcarts, holding our breath the entire time.

As we broke for a half-hearted lunch (the smell had sapped our appetites) some of the volunteers seemed to resent the owner for leaving the house in such a mess. I think we were just disgusted at the smell and that it was such hard work. A house is harder to gut when you have to carry out all the possessions.

Once we had gotten most of the items out of the house, we started ripping out walls. In some areas, we would discover a pile of black pellets on the 2x4’s. Cockroaches had been breeding and dropping for months. Soon after, we would see some skitter away. With each hit of the hammer we would find more. They had taken over as tenants of the house.

By the end of the day, we had hauled out most of the debris, and had taken down the walls. The pictures below show how far we progressed.

Before

After

It was disgusting, but it was still a good experience. The guy we helped is on his own and is battling all sorts of problems, as Sean will discuss. He had a messy house, but now at least it has a shot at being saved, and for that I feel good.

The smell of death lingers, though. I showered and smelled it as I washed my hair. I smell it in my clothes that I sealed in a bag. I smell it when I think about the day or see pictures. It makes me shudder.